Carbon/carbon (“C/C”) parts are employed in various industries. An exemplary use for C/C parts includes using them as friction disks such as aircraft brake disks, race car brake disks, clutch disks, and the like. C/C brake disks are especially useful in such applications because of the superior high temperature characteristics of C/C material. In particular, the C/C material used in C/C parts is a good conductor of heat and thus is able to dissipate heat away from the braking surfaces that is generated in response to braking C/C material is also highly resistant to heat damage, and is thus capable of sustaining friction between brake surfaces during severe braking, without a significant reduction in the friction coefficient or mechanical failure.
A circular needle loom (CNL) may be utilized to form a circular preform, for example, for use in creating net shape carbon brake disks. Various textile technologies exist for fabricating a continuous carbon feed form for a circular needle loom, including yarn placement, stitch bonding, pre-needling, and loom weaving with conical take-up rolls.